Irish: Lesson Fourteen

Genitive After Prepositions

As well as indicating possession, the genitive case of a noun is
used after certain specific prepositions such as "chun" (to), "cois" (beside),
"dála" (by), "fearacht" (like, as), "timpeall" (around) and "trasna"
(across):

An Róimh

--

Rome

-->

chun na Róimhe

--

to Rome

an domhan

--

the world

-->

timpeall an domhain

--

around the world

an pháirc

--

the field

-->

trasna na páirce

--

across the field

The genitive is also used after all "compound" prepositions
(prepositions of more than one word), e.g. "ar fud" (throughout), "ar son" (for
the sake of), "i ndiaidh" (after), "os cionn" (above) etc. This will be
discussed more fully in another lesson.

Plural of Adjectives

Adjectives agree with nouns in case and number, which means that
when a noun is plural its adjective is plural, when a noun is genitive its
adjective is genitive, and so on. As mentioned in Lesson Three, this only
applies when the adjective directly qualifies the noun.

The most common way to form the plural of an adjective is to add
"-a" to it:

teach mór

--

big house

--> tithe móra

--

big houses

cailín óg

--

young girl

--> cailíní óga

--

young girls

If the adjective's final vowel is slender, "-e" may be added
instead:

áit ciúin

--

quiet place

--> áiteanna ciúine

--

quiet places

Adding these final vowels can cause the loss of the previous final
vowel:

duine láidir

--

strong man

--> daoine láidre

--

strong men

Adjectives ending in "-úil" change to "-úla" in the
plural:

duine leisciúil

--

lazy man

--> daoine leisciúla

--

lazy men

Some common irregular plurals are

álainn (beautiful)

-->

áille;

tirim (dry)

-->

tiorma;

uasal (noble)

-->

uaisle;

te (hot)

-->

teo;

breá (fine)

-->

breátha.

You've learned that adjectives following a singular feminine noun
are aspirated e.g. "eaglais mhór" (big church). In the plural,
adjectives following feminine plural nouns are not aspirated, but they
are aspirated if they follow a masculine plural noun whose ending is
slender, i.e. whose last vowel is a slender one (e or i). Contrast the feminine
word "súil" (eye) with the masculine word "bád" (boat). We want
to apply the word "gorm" (blue) to both of them in the plural:

Singular:

súil ghorm

--

a blue eye

Plural:

súile gorma

--

blue eyes

but:

Singular:

bád gorm

--

blue boat

Plural:

báid ghorma

--

blue boats

Because the plural of "bád", which is "báid", has
the slender vowel "i" at the end, it aspirates the adjective that comes after
it, whereas the feminine plural leaves the adjective unaffected -- almost the
opposite to what happens in the singular.

Genitive Singular of Adjectives

The behaviour of adjectives when they follow nouns in the genitive
is as haphazard as that of the nouns themselves, but luckily the Christian
Bros. managed to isolate the nine different kinds of adjective and describe
their genitive forms depending on whether they're following a masculine or
feminine noun. Note that feminine adjectives are never aspirated in the
genitive singular or in the plural, but masculine ones are:

Adjective

Gen. Sing. Masc.

Gen. Sing. Fem.

Nom. Plural

1. bán,

"white"

bháin

báine

bána

2. díreach,

"straight"

dirigh

dirí

díreacha

3. bacach,

"lame"

bacaigh

bacaí

bacacha

4. leisciúil,

"lazy"

leisciúil

leisciúla

leisciúla

5. mall,

"slow"

mall

maille

malla

6. maith,

"good"

maith

maithe

maithe

7. buíoch,

"grateful"

buíoch

buíthí

buíocha

8. gnách,

"usual"

gnách

gnáthaí

gnácha

The usual disclaimer applies: there's little point in memorizing
these forms or worrying about them; as long as you can generally recognize them
when they appear in an Irish text you'll get used to them over time.

Genitive Plural of Adjectives

How an adjective is declined in the plural depends on the noun
it's qualifying. In Lesson 13 we learned the difference between a strong-plural
noun and a weak-plural noun. Weak nouns have the same genitive plural and
nominative singular, but strong nouns have the same genitive plural and
nominative plural. If an adjective follows a strong-plural noun, it has the
same form for all cases of the plural, e.g.:

Nominative Plural:

na cailíní óga

--

the young girls

Genitive Plural:

na gcailíní óga

--

of the young girls

But if an adjective follows a weak-plural noun, it has the same
form in the genitive plural as it does in the nominative singular:

Nominative Plural:

na fir óga

--

the young men

Genitive Plural:

na bhfear óg

--

of the young men

Infinitive with Object

Previously, we learned that the infinitive form of the verb is
just the verbal noun without "ag" in front of it:

ag dul

--

going

--> Ba mhaith liom dul abhaile.

--

I'd like to go home.

ag caitheamh

--

smoking

--> An féidir liom caitheamh?

--

May I smoke?

There is no direct object in these sentences. When one is added,
the infinitive changes in form slightly -- it is aspirated when possible and is
prefixed by "a". If we change the second sentence in the example above and add
"toitín" (a cigarette) as the direct object, we get

An féidir liom toitín a chaitheamh?

--

May I smoke a cigarette?

Note how the infinitive then gets pushed to the end of the
sentence. Some other examples:

ag fáil

--

getting

--> Bhí sé ag iarraidh radharc maith a
fháil.

--

He was asking to get a good view.(lit: he was asking
a good view to get)

ag díol

--

selling

--> Ba mhaith léi an teach a dhíol.

--

She would like to sell the house.(lit: she would like
the house to sell)

Subjunctive Tense

The present subjunctive is a tense that isn't even covered in some
Irish textbooks, but is one that learners find very useful, because it covers
the idea of wishing something and so appears in some famous Irish proverbs and
blessings. It's considered an old-fashioned tense for daily speech (except in
set phrases) but still appears often in print.

The subjunctive is normally formed from "Go" (which eclipses, and
adds "n-" to a verb beginning with a vowel), plus the subjunctive form of the
verb, plus the subject, plus the thing being wished for. For instance, the
subjunctive form of "teigh" (go) is "té":

Go dté tú slán.

--

May you be well.(lit: may you go well)

Or again, the subjunctive of "tabhair" (give) is "tuga":

Go dtuga Dia ciall duit. --

May God give you sense.

Or to take a third example, sometimes the wish is also a curse,
like this one from Tory Island in Donegal:

Go ndéana an Diabhal toirneach de d'anam in
Ifreann.

-- May the Devil make thunder of your soul in Hell.

The Irish phrase for "thank you" -- go raibh math agat -- uses the
subjunctive of "bi" and literally means "may there be good at-you".

The subjunctive of regular verbs is as follows:

1st Conjugation:

a) "mol":

mola mé,

mola tú,

mola sé,

mola sí;

molaimid;

mola sibh,

mola siad.

b) "bris":

brise mé,

brise tú,

brise sé,

brise sí;

brisimid;

brise sibh,

siad.

2nd Conjugation:

a) "beannaigh":

beannaí mé,

beannaí tú,

beannaí sé,

beannaí sí;

beannaímid;

beannaí sibh,

beannaí siad.

b) "bailigh":

bailí mé,

bailí tú,

bailí sé,

bailí sí;

bailímid;

bailí sibh,

bailí siad.

E.g. "go mbeannaí Dia thú"

--

May God bless you.

Three Irregular Verbs

Over the next few lessons I'll gradually give the forms for the
ten Irish verbs that are at least partly irregular. The three I'll give today
are feic, "see", tabhair, "give", and abair, "say".